Considering the rather limited pool of games I play, the only thing I can contribute to all of this is that it looks like an xbox controller with a smartphone glued onto it.

If I could play LoL and Touhou wherever I went however, my interest might be piqued.

baronight said:

Really really thx for the heads up, im a big fans of Kokoro Connect and i didn't knew they gonna come out with OVA…probably forgotten abt it

Yeah it’s not really an OVA, it’s the same visual quality of the show itself. Really it’s just extra episodes, like Bakemono’s, Durarara’s or Baccano’s.

Needless to say however, the Michi Random arc is an excellent one and reminds me just how much I love this show and love these characters. I had heard sometime before from people who read the light novels that Taichi would end up with Inaba instead of Iori, and I wasn’t so fond of that development when I first heard about it. Now that I have actually seen it however, I found the process totally believeable and very enjoyable.

I say it’s a must watch for anyone who enjoyed Kokoro Connect.

danhibiki said:
I fully expected the ending it had, but it's the ending I wanted. It made me happy, and that's all that matters to me.

Pretty much this, I expected the ending we were given, but it was so emotionally satisfying that I loved it regardless. It just “felt” really good, and that was good enough for me.

The Anime had it’s problems, but at the end of the day, it’s heart was in the right place and was a very enjoyable ride for the majority of it’s length.

As it was said on /a/, KyoAni saved fucking Christmas.

sylphin said:

Watch it, write a review LOL.

Is the show even meaty enough for me to do such a thing? Is there a lack of discussion on other forums?

aneko said:

[color=white].[/color]

… I think that might take the cake for the shortest response to a text response I have ever gotten.

[quote]No Psycho-Pass? [/quote]

Never watched it.

Concerning the new shows, I have decided to watch based on completely superfluous and silly rules to view:

Ai Mai Mi
AKB0048 Next Stage
Haganai NEXT
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
Tamako Market
Kotoura-san
Vividred Operation
Love Live! School Idol Project

The one maybe I have is Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shubara Sugiru, I might drop the carry over Magi for it.

And as for carry overs, they are as follows:

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
Magi
Little Busters
Robotics;Notes

genosabre said:

This^

I have actually. Just about a week ago. It’s just an introductory post at the moment however.

jamesownsall said:

…Though I gotta say Yuuta's showing extreme signs of remorse. All I see happening to Rikka right now is just her going from one extreme end to another.

It seems the Anime is going for the message that it’s balance that should be seeked out, not just being a Chuuni or just being normal. That is actually a message I can accept, it just seems that Yuuta (and Rikka) haven’t figured it out yet.

sylphin said:

Last I remember he got blackmailed by her, but well eventually he just went with the flow.

That is definitely true, the only reason he listened to what Touka said in the first few episodes was because of Dark Flame Blackmail. Though as the episodes went on, it seemed like he didn't need such "persuasion" to follow Touka's faulty advice.

I still find it amazing that even the Chuunibyou Hater/Repressed Chuunibyou that is Shinka disapproves of the situation. When even Shinka feels the need to comfort Dekomori, you know someone done fucked up.

palmtop-tiger said:
Fukkin Yuta. Rikka accepting her father's death doesn't mean no fun allowed. Dekomori knows its not real but she's not hurting anyone.

And we're not going too see Dark Flame Master fight, are we? Damn Kyoani ruining Christmas.

Goddamn it Touka, this is what happens when you dodge your job as a parent and try to go for the quick and easy fix.

I remember someone elsewhere saying that all the women of Rikka's family run away from their problems. The mother bailed when the father died (how fucking wonderful), Rikka's Chuunibyou is her form of escapism, and despite Touka's heavy handed "get back to reality" message she is just as guilty of this. She pushed the job of fixing Rikka's Chuunibyou, and almost the whole job of looking after her to Yuuta (remember her "It's too embarassing" line a few episodes ago)? Yuuta may have been willing to comply with Touka eventually, but none of the events would have happened without her influence. Her doing just as much dodging as the rest of her female kin yet still holding that "cold, hard, reality" additude is contradictory, and downright hypocritical.

Yuuta is still guilty however for going along with this. You went for the quick and easy fix as Touka suggested, and now everyone is all filled with regret. Just forcing her to stop being a Chuuni didn't sound helpful to anyone (especially Rikka) when suggested, and now we get to see for ourselves that it was not helpful. Even Shinka of all people suggested that they were trying too hard (I liked the fact that Shinka still took advantage of the situation by trying to get the Mabinogion from Dekomori despite feeling that that Rikka's change was very unatural, that and the ensuing comfort hug was my favorite moment of the show).

Also, I am aware that even Yuuta feels like this change is unnatural, but goddamn the way he took it out on Dekomori was just plain un-fucking-cool. He more or less did the equivalent of telling a little kid that Santa Claus doesn't exist. It may be very much the truth, but why kill a fantasy that is ultimately harmless? It especially felt bad considering Dekomori is an actual Chuuni so her having Chuunibyou makes a hell of a lot more sense.

I was enjoying the more dramatic route KyoAni was going for. It worked in K-ON!!, but this time I feel KyoAni has tried too hard and pushed for too much drama. It ended up falling under the weight of it's angst. I do like KyoAni’s editions of Dekomori and Kumin, I even liked how the drama was playing out prior to episode 10, but I think KyoAni pushed the show’s tone down too much for it’s own good.

baronight said:
Little Busters…

Yes, Little Busters. I must say myself that despite all the nail biting done by key fans and the amount of talk the show got before it even aired, I must say that I find the show to be only meh.

The characters are so-so most of the time and just somewhat good even on their best days so far. I don’t find our VA male lead particularly interesting, and he hangs around more guys than your average VA male lead as well. Unfortunately the 3 of them are either on the same level of intrigue as him, or are just way more interesting outright (Kyousuke I mean) which exasperates his VA male lead blandness. Don’t get me wrong, there are VA male leads who are great characters (Oka… I mean [b]HOUOUIN KYOUMA[/b] is one of them, Yuichi Aizawa is cool too), but this Riki kid is damn boring. Even amongst not-so-great VA protags he really bores me. At least other VA protags have the good sense to not have many male friends so us viewers don’t start comparing amongst them which would be a nicer/cooler protag…

As for the girls, I don’t have much better hopes for them either. Rin is nearly as boring as Riki to me, not saying much to get me interested. I guess they’re trying for a Dandere/Tsundere mix for her but I don’t know, it’s just not working for me. I guess you’re right about them forcing it. I’m a little more partial to Kamikita as the show has finally gotten into the story arcs and hers was first. Still, despite her cuteness I can’t really get into her much either. She, like the rest of the cast suffers the worst sin of entertainment: being boring. I don’t even find the Onee-san character (I’m too lazy to look up her name) that interesting. She’s cool I suppose, but not much more than the rest of the cast. Honestly, how can you make an Onee-san character boring!? It sounds almost oxymoronic.

What worries even more is that those who are into the Little Busters VN are actually saying that this adaption is fairly competent and pretty accurate. Everyone criticizes the “effort” (or lack thereof) put into the animation, and that is definitely a place KyoAni (or even PA Works) would have been preferred (though I suppose there would have been no panchira if KyoAni was making this). However I have been noticing that for those who know the VN, they are happy with the show as it is turning out (sans the visuals of course). Their approval means I can’t chalk up my middling feelings to Little Busters to Adaption Decay. I suppose I’m happy for fans of the VN that they are actually getting J.C. Staff on a day when they adapt faithfully (even if all their animating budget seems to be going to Sakurasou) but as for myself, I’m not really seeing the appeal. I don’t find it horrible, just very milktoast and boring at the moment. Maybe when we get deeper into the arcs I will grow more attached to it (as apparently this is the one Key work where things are based in the psychological instead of the supernatural) but as of now it rates alongside Air as my least favorite animated Key work (with Angel Beats and Clannad being my favorites for different reasons).

Though despite all that, I wouldn’t say that Little Busters is my least favorite thing of the season, that dubious honor goes to Robotics;Notes.

genosabre said:

WHERE WERE YOU!?

Searching for the Mages beyond the horizon (trans: in lurk mode).

My typical post takes quite a bit of time, and I guess I haven’t been motivated as of late to post my typical text wall, as the things I am watching this season took a while to really grow on me (unlike the Summer). Now that I have full gotten attached to what I am watching, I might start posting again.

Well I finally got to watch the Strike Witches movie and I must say it was a very enjoyable experience. It’s nice to watch this movie during this season considering my favorite shows (Chu2koi and Sakurasou) are strangely devoid of Alternate History Dogfighting action.

First, concerning how it looked, it was well made which is to be expected of a movie. However, I noticed that the art style nor the visual quality did not really step up from the TV series as it was made under AIC, unlike the K-ON movie in which the change in visual crispness from TV to Movie was very noticeable. It looked like it could run on TV in this regard, which quite frankly is not as much of a complaint as it sounds, as the standards for TV Anime has risen by quite a margin in the last few years and look good more often than not (one need look only at Little Busters, who’s appearances probably would have been passable in 2008 or even 2009 probably). Still, I wish the jump in visual quality from TV to Movie would have been more noticeable. The evidence of a movie budget does show itself in other places fortunately. The Animation is noticeably smoother than the TV show and the CG is better integrated with the hand drawn stuff. These attributes are of course most noticeable during the dogfights. All in all, when I stop using KyoAni as the baseline for good animation (something I seriously should stop doing), the Strike Witches movie is a good looking film: good, but not great. It is not lacking in any way and it most certainly gets the job done, I’m just a picky bastard and it’s not absolutely fantastic. However, the strength of this movie is not in visuals, just like it isn’t in the TV show, even if they are good. It’s the characters that always cinch it and make Strike Witches great.

Concerning those characters, they are as excellent and as wonderful to watch as always, and they are the reason why I love this series so damn much. However, we have a new cast member, a very literal new recruit by the name of Shizuka Hattori, tasked with transporting a now powerless Yoshika to a Medical school in Geneva. We learn through Shizuka that Yoshika has become a military legend as well as her personal idol since the events of season 2 in Venezia. However the fact that Shizuka is still a greenhorn shows very quickly, as she is a very strait-laced girl to whom orders come absolutely first, and she doesn’t even have an Erica equivalent to comedically break her composure every once in a while. She very much clashes with Yoshika who, once hated the military, came to think of it as a means to help others. Shizuka quickly becomes annoyed with her antics even though she still idolizes her accomplishments, and also because of it too, as she becomes baffled that THE Yoshika Miyafuji would have little regard for military protocols. To be honest, I thought that one of her better moments as a character was her talk with Perrine. To hear advice from a fellow officer who is more strait laced like Shizuka is, but telling her that the way Yoshika does things is good, was a very good moment. Because Perrine is more like Shizuka than Yoshika is, the advice rang far more true and hit closer to home. In the end, Shizuka is just as enraptured by Yoshika as the rest of the 501st is, and could possibly be a new permanent addition, something I would not object to. In the end I enjoyed her character arc, going from thinking Yoshika is great despite her disregard for protocol, to thinking Yoshika is great because of it. She seems to have also realized that she needs to lighten up somewhat, as this is not one’s conventional military.

Speaking of Yoshika, I very much like how she was handled in this movie. Yoshika was never my favorite of the 501st, but I really disliked anyone in the unit either, so I always just “liked” Yoshika. Despite the movie’s overall focus on her however, she was still very entertaining to watch. She seems even more eager to help people after her “retirement” and it’s mainly this which causes friction with Shizuka, as Yoshika always picks “Good” in the “Lawful vs Good” situation. In some ways her willingness to be helpful even with her loosing her powers makes her seem like a stronger character, while other times it makes her seem more impulsive and stupid. I think the moments when both these feelings were present both strongly and at the same time was in the last act of the movie where Yoshika decides to fight the Neuroi after Shizuka gets shot down. To see her going off to fight with a Machine Gun she can barely lift makes her look increadibly foolhardy (and gives an inkling as to how much magic augments one’s strength), but to see her use a combination of guile and ballsiness to take down the Neuroi with no powers made her look Badass as well. Before she got nearly cut in half herself she looked like a female Rambo! She also got her powers back as well, which despite being a Deus Ex Machina, fits in with the Messianic angle they have been pushing with Yoshika since season 1. It may be rather convenient, but hey, I like the idea of seeing more Strike Witches (especially since the movie ended with a “To Be Continued”), and if anyone would be able to pull of something inexplicable like this, it would be Yoshika. Because this was a movie, it couldn’t do the normal Strike Witches thing of having Yoshika as the main but yet and still having character focused episodes to balance it out, so Yoshika was much more obviously the main character for the movie (the movie did try to be like the TV show as much as it could be concerning how it handled the characters, which I will mention more of in a minute). Concerning that, I really enjoyed watching how Yoshika’s return to the Air Force was portrayed, and I am happy for it.

Also concerning the rest of the 501st, the movie went the way of the TV show, having individual episodes focusing on characters outside of the main girl Yoshika. Now obviously they can’t do this to the extent of the TV show in the Movie, they have a far more limited time to do so than on TV broadcast, which is why Yoshika seems especially focal in the movie. This movie however does do the best with the time it has in re-introducing us back to the members of the 501st as to what they have been doing up till now and introducing us to the new Neuroi threat. I really liked how they were not just thrown back in last minute, and that we got to see them integrated slowly into the movie, for the most part. The only real exception to this is Mio, who is only mentioned in a line of dialogue by Yoshika before re-appearing at the final battle. Everyone else had an appearance elsewhere before the final act, which made their appearance at the scene feel far more natural and organic. It’s kind of a shame that Mio was left out of it somewhat, but it was cool to see her in a normal Fighter Plane, still insisting upon being in the action, which is so very much like Mio. All in all, the many characters are as strong as ever, and are handled just as excellently, leading to many a smile on my face.

Lastly is the plot itself. The movie is very much like the TV show in another way, the plot itself takes a backseat to the characters. Those who are not fans of the series seem to either site the fanservice or this as why they don’t. I personally have no problem with either, as I have always regarded the ecchi in Stike Witches to be a very enjoyable perk, and that the characters are the strongest element so it makes sense to focus on them. The Neuroi remain as mysterious as ever in this movie. I figured out on my own fairly early on that the Neuroi were jamming communications with Chaff (those metallic scraps that the Neuroi were dropping everywhere were suspicious to me) but how they figured out to disrupt communications using Chaff is of course not answered. How they became able to use Carrier-type craft capable of going far outside the range of the nest is unanswered. What exactly Mio was doing during this time is also unanswered. However it is Strike Witches’ general theme that the Neuroi are rarely answered for, so as to make the enemy all the more mysterious. The setup however serves it’s purposes, being told through the SoL-esque moments and giving us some really excellent dogfights along the way. I have already mentioned Yoshika getting her magic back, but Minna at the end makes it official by starting the 501st back up again, which was both a satisfying conclusion to the movie itself as well as being a segway into future material. The plot was not the best in the world and had it’s faults, but it served it’s purpose and was still provided an interesting enemy none the less.

In the end, it was a very enjoyable movie that was worth the wait for it, being something I think most every fan of Strike Witches will enjoy. But regardless, to see the girls of the 501st back in action once again was reason enough for me to see this movie and enjoy it.

Girls Und Panzer.

I decided to watch for the absurd premise and I prepared myself for a show that would be similar in tone to Ben-To or Upotte, shows I also picked on the bizarre premise alone.

I was surprised to see that that this show however is gunning (pun intended?) for a much more dramatic angle and, whilst somewhat lighthearted, Girls Und Panzer has a definite air of mystery and intrigue to it, considering the rather propagandized and women only Tank Combat, and the setting being an Aircraft Carrier big enough to have forests and rock formations, and with the use of WW2 era Tanks along with modern cars and arcade games withing the same timeframe…

But… there is a problem in paradise. The fansubs for this show. The random German thrown into the subs was mildly cute for the first episode, but it’s now just annoying. We don’t even know what nationality this Carrier ship is for sure, but even if it was German (which I doubt) the German sprinkled in is unessesary. It’s an outside annoyance factor to a show I’m beginning to find genuinely interesting.

… I don’t care if I have to wait a week for it, I’m watching Crunchyroll’s version of it.

sylphin said:
Anyone watching Tonari No Kaibutsu-Kun? First Epi was interesting, Im falling for Shizuku’s personality.

I fell for it pretty much on the first episode.

The girl seems fairly interesting, the good natured psychopathic man child genius that is our love interest is very fun to watch, I like the show’s art style, and I will say I was not expecting that kiss.

I think I should start watching more Shoujo….

mascarpone said:
Doesn't help much that SAO and AW are written by the same guy. I might try
to watch both though. If possible.

It’s really the only reason people bother comparing the 2 shows. I know it’s the only reason I do, because otherwise they are only vaguely similar.

palmtop-tiger said:

…Fights are short and consist of spamming attacks and switching…

Nomi. He was done so right. A blackmailing worm that you could hate and even understand his reasoning for being evil while still hating him. Watching him cry for mercy, crawling, writhing, was so satisfying.

And there's a rumor going round that one of this season's shows will be getting 4 cours, here's hoping its Accel World.

I guess the spam attack thing is a form of realism in a way. It is still an MMO, so once you find the most broken combination of weapons, armor and skills you can throw out strategy for the most part, lol. I do like SAO's sword fights but I will admit that fights in AW are far more varied. Even if you were to take away the whole fact that you are trapped once you log in, the Accel World seems like a far more interesting game.

Oh yes, Nomi. I personally did not find him sympathetic in the slightest, as he was far to much of an asshole for that. I did however find his downfall in ep.25 to be so deliciously satisfying that I had to watch it multiple times, hehehe….

Honestly I wouldn't mind Accel World getting another season. Both SAO and AW in my opinion share a similar problem of taking a while to really get good, but AW eventually became genuinely interesting. SAO I find interesting really only because of Kirito and Asuna. I really wouldn't mind watching more of it as it stands.

Well the Summer 2012 season is as good as over, with Horizon 2 being the only single Cour Anime of this season that I have not yet finished. Other than that I have the 2 carry-overs of Kokoro Connect which is my favorite of Summer no contest, and SAO which although interesting, took a very long time to get interesting. Also I don’t see what makes SAO [b]SO[/b] much better than Accel World, as the only thing SAO absolutely has over Accel (to me anyway) is a better male lead. Otherwise I feel they are fairly even, with their various points over one another being highly arguable to me, but that is separate from the issue at hand.

The pickings of Fall 2012 seem pretty varied, a difference already from Summer, however whether that is automatically better or not is yet to be seen as the Anime of this Summer did surprise me for the better. Needless to say, what I have decided to watch based on completely frivolous and shallow reasons is!…

[b]Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun:[/b] True it sounds like just a RomCom, but I usually find RomComs with mundane settings to always be enjoyable to some degree. Also, it’s Brains Base. For some reason I don’t watch a lot of their stuff, even though I really like Baccano and love Durarara. I really want to get into more of their stuff, so here’s another chance for me.

[b]Jormungand Perfect Order:[/b] Simple reason. It’s a sequel to something I really enjoyed. Next.

[b]Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai:[/b] I think everyone has noticed this one by now. As for me, well KyoAni is behind it so it’s pretty much a fact that it will look good. Also I find the premise itself to be very interesting and ripe for some good jokes. To me at least it looks like a damn good show with a lot of promise.

[b]Onii-chan Dakeko Ai Sae Areba Kankei nai yo ne:[/b] Yet another in the series of recent Anime with long ass names. True the premise does not look particularly remarkable, but its by Silver Link. For the most part I generally like what I see from them, so I’m willing to give this a chance. And usually when it comes to Silver Link, I am not disappointed.

[b]Little Busters:[/b] The one thing that has probably generated the most discussion already and is the one anime people have been waiting for, the Little Busters adaption. To get this out of the way, yes the fact that it’s being done by J.C. Staff does concern me and I do wish that it was KyoAni (or even PA Works) doing it instead of them. However I am still going to give it the benefit of the doubt. It’s not that J.C is incapable of producing good work, it’s that the quality of their work is incredibly variable. You never know if you’re gonna get the next Railgun or the next Hidan no Aria with them. They also tend to make multiple works at the same time within a single season, so favorites inevitably surface and further exacerbate the former problem. Add to that the fact that J.C rarely if ever adapts VNs, and you have yourself some genuine cause for concern. But we have not even seem the show yet, and to say that it’s dead in the water just because of J.C is a poor attitude to take in my opinion and I will never agree with that Endless Eight style of logic. J.C is capable of good work, and even the studio I thought of as just shy of being a Leper (Xebec) had me thoroughly enjoying Lagrange. I always wanted to give the series a try if the Anime ever came out, and I am still going to do so. I just hope that Little Busters is J.C on a “good” day.

[b]Magi:[/b] One of 3 shows premiering this season by A-1 Pictures. Add on SAO and that’s 4 shows running in a season. Quite a lot for A-1. Anyway the whole 1001 Arabian Nights thing seems pretty interesting, and I do like A-1, so this was a pretty easy decision for me. Is is wrong of me to say that I’m hoping to see a moefied version of Scheherazade?

[b]Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo:[/b] Another J.C. Staff Anime, with what should be a warning label of Mari Okada being this show’s writer. But here I am, interested in the show regardless. Thankfully this is an adaption, so Okada cannot run rampant like she did in Hanasaku Iroha and BRS TV. I suppose it’s the art style, but I’ll give the show it’s fair chance.

[b]Girls und Panzer:[/b] There’s really not much to say about this. I’m picking this up for it’s weird ass premise alone, like I did with Ben-To and Upotte. I will most likely enjoy it in some way, shape or form.

[b]Robotics;Notes:[/b] Another adaptation of a 5pb VN, with this one having an Anime adaption almost immediately after release. I heard it was designed with an Anime/Multimedia in mind. Never the less I am very interested in this, as I love Steins;Gate to death and the premise itself seems very interesting. Not to mention it is a noitaminA series by Production I.G, so at least it will look good.

I might also take a look at Shin Sekai Yori, as it is also by A-1. However the whole description of a false Utopia and a crumbling world sound too similar to Fractale for comfort, a show which was a bombshell of disappointment to me. I may like the studio but the premise does not really attract me, so I’m not sure.

Other than that this is pretty much my list. I may add on other things but these things (except Shin Sekai Yori) I am more or less sold on. What is everyone else planning to watch?